The Tay Ninh Province People’s Committee has decided to suspend the mining of sand in the Dau Tieng Reservoir and its processing and trade from Monday to begin an investigation into the activity.

A sand ground on the shore of Dau Tieng reservoir.

Earlier the province Department of Natural Resources and Environment had probed sand mining in Dau Tieng and uncovered many irregularities like the lack of business licences and their illegal transfer, overloaded vehicles, the use of heavy trucks that could jeopardise reservoir safety.

The authorities aim to streamline sand mining and haul up violators before allowing the activity to resume.

A task force has been established and tasked with checking the activities of all 11 companies allowed to exploit natural resources in the reservoir.

On Wednesday the province transport department also set up a task force to check waterway activities related to sand mining in Dau Tieng.

The investigation is expected to wrap up in 10 days with the task force checking sand and land exploitation, environment and shipping construction licences, sales invoices, financial contributions, and waterway activities.

In recent times the prices of sand used for construction have shot up from VNĐ300,000 (US$13) per cubic metre to VNĐ450,000 ($20).

The 11 businesses are allowed to mine 350,000 cubic metres of sand a year. 

VNS